ROW80 #5: Taking the Plunge

I know it's Thursday and Wednesday is check-in day for ROW80. I'm late one day. Yet, despite few words, I'm feeling pretty good about progress so far on this week's goals:

1. GOAL: Write 1,000 words on Tapestry project. Write 1 poem. UPDATE: Wrote 2 out of 3 days. Total: 180 new words. No poetry yet.
2. GOAL: Post ROW80 x2 and read x6. UPDATE: Posted Weds late (that's today). Read 6x.

So, why do I feel pretty darn good this morning?

Yesterday, we visited Chichen Itza, a Mayan World Heritage site about an hour and a half away from Merida. Our guide was knowledgeable and kind, but much had changed in the 25 years or so since we were last here, especially considering what the archaeologists have discovered. So, we wandered until we could walk no more, amazed by the beauty of this site, despite the fact that millions (yes, about two million) tourists visit each year.

This smaller building to the east of the main site, is called the Church, because it's right next to what has been dubbed the Nunnery.

We could translate very few of the symbols that cover this building; the guide explained some 30K people lived in this religious center, roughly 1100 years ago. 

Wikipedia says that the name of Chichen Itza means 'at the mouth of the well of the Itza people'. We did not visit the 'well' that's part of this site, but our guide said we would stop at a smaller cenote (well) on the way back to Merida. These sacred cenotes are an important part of Mayan religious rituals and, as a source of water, of value to the whole complex.

So our small group of 8 people stopped at the X-cajum cenote. Several had brought bathing suits, but Allen and I were the only ones to swim there. We hiked down a little over a few hundred feet on a beautiful winding staircase to the cenote. Allen swam under a waterfall, while I simply floated for a few minutes in the black water in the center of the cenote, and felt aware of the prayers and sacrifices once made here.

View from the top of the X-cajum Cenote (January 2018)

Read more about Chichen Itza in Wikipedia HERE.

I'm still optimistic about reaching this week's goals. Let's see how other ROW80 writers are doing so far by checking in with our FACEBOOK group or on our WEBSITE .

Have a great week, everyone!